


Bookends

by TheAlmightyAndPowerfulCheerio



Series: Some Soulmate AU Ideas [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Icha Icha Series, Kakashi has so many books, M/M, Reading, Soulmate AU, Tenzou's a sweetheart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-20 01:47:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14885309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAlmightyAndPowerfulCheerio/pseuds/TheAlmightyAndPowerfulCheerio
Summary: “Well... I guess your soulmate has good taste in literature,” Kakashi teased after a few moments, one hand reaching out to press against Tenzou's shoulder fondly.Tenzou still seemed bewildered, tilting his head and letting out a quiet laugh.“So my soulmate’s probably a shameless pervert like you - huh senpai?”





	Bookends

**Author's Note:**

> I think there was a prompt for this, but I lost it. So... uh, yeah I'm not really sure what this is anymore. Lemme know if you want more like this & thanks for reading! :)

 

Tenzou frowned down at the page, clearly confused. “I feel like I've already read this,” he murmured quietly, “but I know for a fact I've never so much as _touched_ this book before.”

His eyes widened in disbelief at his own words. And Kakashi found himself doing similarly when he realized just exactly what that meant.

“Well... I guess your soulmate has good taste in literature.” Kakashi teased after a few moments, one hand reaching out to press against Tenzou's shoulder fondly.

Tenzou still seemed bewildered, tilting his head and letting out a quiet laugh.

“So my soulmate’s probably a shameless pervert like you - huh senpai?”

Kakashi rolled his grey eye affectionately.  
“Icha Icha is a wonderful series Tenzou, full of romance and drama and not to mention tragedy. The book comes alive with Jiraiya's-”

Tenzou shook his head. “-It's _trashy_ \- anyway, most of the characters are completely implausible. What sort of shinobi leaves home without any weapons? And why would the bakers daughter know fuinjutsu if she doesn't even know ninjutsu?”

Kakashi quirked an eyebrow before smiling widely, ignoring Tenzou's evaluation of the book in favor of his newfound knowledge.

“So you know the whole story- and you've never read it?”

“Yes,” Tenzou didn't seem exactly pleased about it.

“Hmmm,” Kakashi watched Tenzou curiously; so far as he knew this was the first time the younger man had ever experienced the soulmate phenomena.

But what would Kakashi know? He hadn't ever felt the way Tenzou currently did. Not except for mission assignments sometimes, but so many people read through those that it would be impossible to try and narrow it down by that.

Icha Icha however, was not something just _anyone_ read.

"Do you have the other books from the series lying around? I'm curious if they've read them all.”

Kakashi nodded, standing up and grabbing the others from his bookshelf. Noticing how worn they were starting to get.

Tenzou picked up the books carefully, always delicate with other people's things, and especially books. Kakashi wouldn't have cared even if he’d started ripping pages out, he'd read each cover to cover. And had kept them mostly for sentimental reasons.

But this was Tenzou, so of course he didn't rip out pages. Instead he gently skimmed through the first book before putting it down and grabbing the second in the series. The expression on his face slightly awed.

Tenzou mouthed the words silently before closing the books and placing them on the floor beside Kakashi.

“They've read the whole series,” his tone was aggrieved- but there was a soft sort of smile on his face as he shook his head.

_Adorable_. Kakashi found himself thinking, as he often did.

“In fact- dammit- I think they have them memorized or something. Because I can recall every single awful detail of the books.”

Kakashi made a noise of complaint, swiping the books up protectively. It'd taken him _months_ to memorize them all, even with the sharingan.

“Alright, I'll quiz you on them,” Kakashi decided, curious to see just how well Tenzou’s soulmate knew their stuff.

Tenzou sighed. “At this point I don't think I _want_ to know, senpai,” he grumbled.

Kakashi elbowed his kohai lightly. “You wanna know,” he disagreed with a warm smile.

Tenzou opened his mouth to protest before sighing again. “Alright yes, I want to know.”

Kakashi's eye crinkled up even more. “Okay. So first question: what color was Ryiu’s scarf?”

“Which book is this from?”

“The first one, Make-Out Tactics.”

Tenzou tilted his head in thought, touching the book lightly. “Yellow,”

Kakashi nodded. “Correct. Now: who was the first person Ito kisses?”

“Ito kisses… well it's either Quo or Ryiu, but I'm not sure if Quo kissed her or not because it just says ‘embrace’ -which is a bit open-ended…”

Kakashi stared at him thoughtfully. He was re-reading the scene with his sharingan, Tenzou realized after a second.

“True, I don't think i’d count that though.”

“Alright so the answer would be Ryiu.”

Kakashi smiled brightly. “Okay last one: what do you think of Sri?”

Tenzou scowled at the question. “What do I think of Sri? How will that tell us anything?”

Kakashi smiled patiently, leaning back against the wall and stretching his legs out in front of him. Consequently letting his knee rest against Tenzou's thigh. The younger teen didn't seem bothered, so he left it there, comforted by the contact.

“If your soulmate’s the person who read the books, it'd make sense that the way they interpreted events and characters would be how _you_ now perceive them, right? You know the words and story because someone else read them and transferred that knowledge to you. So depending on your answer, a lot could be said for the type of person your soulmate is.”

Tenzou looked intrigued. “Interesting...” he fell silent for a few moments, gathering his thoughts. “I think- they think? … that Sri is…” he frowned again, “lesbian?” he finally offered looking uncomfortable.

Kakashi's grey eye looked caught off guard. “Excuse me?” he coughed.

Tenzou shrugged, tilting his own head back against the wall in thought.  
“I just… I feel like she's definitely into Ito for some reason. Their interactions are always so much more intense than with the other characters. I think that's the big reveal for the next book, probably. That Sri’s lesbian. Overall I like her enough, I think what she did to Jox was a bit snobby- because she definitely did it on purpose. But I don't really blame her- the guy was a tool. Anyway, that's what, uh, my soulmate thinks, I guess.”

Kakashi could only stare at Tenzou.

“Senpai?” he asked quietly before blinking and straightening up, “oh shit- I didn't just ruin the series for you did I? I mean who knows what Master Jiraiya might be planning? Maybe I've got it all wrong.”

Kakashi stood up slowly, reaching a hand down towards Tenzou.

“Why don't we see if you're familiar with any of my other books?” He finally asked, his voice light enough, but holding an emotion Tenzou couldn't quite place.

Tenzou gripped his hand and stood up, nodding.“Okay... sure.” he agreed, following Kakashi towards his bookcase.

He was a bit confused by Kakashi's reaction. But he figured if he _had_ just spoiled the book for the anbu captain, he could always buy him dinner and write a few mission reports to make it up to him.

Anyway, if his soulmate had managed to catch onto something even a genius like Kakashi hadn't seen coming, then they were surely incredibly smart. After all, Kakashi probably knew those books even better than Master Jiraiya himself.

He froze a minute to squint at the shelves in discomfort. His soulmate wasn't _Jiraiya_ was it?

“What's with the sour expression?” Kakashi asked.

Tenzou continued to stand there uncomfortably for a few moments, face heating with horror. Master Jiraiya, from what he knew, was old enough to be his grandfather.

_Oh Kami no,_ he thought desperately, his stomach squirming sickeningly. _My soulmate’s going to be an old man_.

Kakashi had moved closer to him in concern, a gloved hand gripping his shoulder supportively.

“What's the matter Tenz?” he asked and there was an alarm to his voice that finally got Tenzou to unfreeze.

“Sorry I just…” Tenzou's face flushed again and he had to break eye contact, “What if my soulmate’s-”  
Kakashi nodded for him to continue.  
“Master Jiraiya,” he finally managed, his hands covering his face in mortification.

Kakashi snorted; throwing his head back and laughing. Tenzou jolted at the sound, listening to Kakashi cackle in apparent amusement, chortling in a way Tenzou had never seen. This was pure unadulterated _mirth_ on Kakashi's part. In fact, he was even crying he was laughing so hard.

Tenzou was completely unprepared for this, so when his anbu captains head dropped onto his shoulder, his body shaking with laughter, he could only wrap a stunned arm around him, spare tears collecting on his collarbones.

“Senpai, I'm serious!” Tenzou argued, his face completely red. But Kakashi just wouldn't stop laughing against him, making the _cutest_ noises, dammit, as he mocked him.

“Sorry, sorry,” Kakashi gasped, but he was still shaking and crying and clutching Tenzou too close to really mean it.

Tenzou huffed, but kept Kakashi against his chest, flushing even more at the contact. He wondered if his senpai was having a mental breakdown on him, and what he should do about it, if he were.

Finally, Kakashi could breath without laughing, although small little snickers still left him every few seconds.

“Are you better now, senpai?” Tenzou asked, turning so he could see Kakashi's face- okay his eye- more clearly. Even through the mask Tenzou could see how utterly _amused_ his anbu captain was.

A gloved hand wiped away the lingering wetness on his cheek as Kakashi nodded.

“Yes, I'm fine,” he assured, his charcoal eye shimmering with his tears- Kakashi looked startlingly pretty like this. Tenzou found to his slight anxiousness.  
“I'm sorry Tenzou- that was just great... But no-  _Jiraiya-_ is not your soulmate.”

Tenzou let out a relieved breath at this. “Thank Kami, I was worried for a second there.”

Kakashi shook his head, reluctantly detaching himself from Tenzou to walk back towards the bookshelves.

“Now it's time to test my hypothesis.”

Tenzou moved forward as well, eyeing him curiously. “What's your hypothesis?”

Kakashi gave a small smile before tilting his head towards the bookshelves. “Check the books,” he said, instead of answering.

Tenzou huffed as he reached forward for them.  
He skimmed through every book Kakashi owned, and the more he grabbed and looked at, the wider his brown eyes got.

“They've read all of these,” he murmured quietly, astounded at how much reading they'd done. There must have been over a hundred books in Kakashi's home.   He crouched down to inspect the ones on the lower shelves.  
“Not this one though…”  
He held it up.

Kakashi looked at it briefly. “I haven't read that either,” he admitted, “but all the other ones... I have.”  
Tenzou's head jerked up in surprise and he blinked at Kakashi for a few seconds before his mouth fell open.

And then he was on his feet, grabbing a scroll off of Kakashi's desk, and quickly doodled a few characters.

Kakashi watched him, intrigued.  
Tenzou stared down at the paper- re-reading it, before passing it to Kakashi.

Kakashi took it willingly, glancing down and feeling a sense of dejavú hit him as he read the words.

“Did you-?”

“Yes,” he whispered, before gazing up into warm brown eyes.  
Neither moved for a few moments before Tenzou smiled so wide it looked like it hurt.

“So that means that we’re-”

“Soulmates,” Kakashi answered for him, moving a few steps closer to the brunet. 

Tenzou's cheeks turned pink again. “Uh, yeah... soulmates,” he repeated quietly, but that smile was still on his face. It only brightened when Kakashi moved closer again.

"How the hell did we miss this?" Kakashi found himself asking quietly, although he already knew the answer. Tenzou's reading material was very, very different from his own. And all the mission scrolls they read had been handled too much to really mean anything.

Tenzou shrugged, a disbelieving smile on his own face. “So…" he started after a handful of seconds, eyes gleaming with amusement, "I guess my soulmate _is_ a pervert.” 

“Oh, you have no idea, kohai.” Kakashi answered with his own smile. “But I'm sure you'll figure out soon enough.”

Tenzou only managed to blink once in surprise, before Kakashi was on him.

And really, he shouldn't have been all that surprised. After all- he'd seen for himself the kind of books Kakashi read.


End file.
